The Secret Year- Jennifer R. Hubbard

The Secret Year

Jennifer R. Hubbard

Viking, Jan 7 2010, $16.99

ISBN: 9780670011537

 

Sixteen years old Colt relaxes in his room when he gets a call from Syd who tells him that Julia Vernon died in a car accident.  Neither Syd nor their friends knew that Colt and Julia were secretly seeing one another for the past year.  They hid their relationship because she was from the Black Mountain country club wealthy set and he was from the dirt poor flats.

 

Both of them enjoyed sex and being with each other every Friday night, but had to ignore one another in school.  Her brother gives Colt Julia’s diary because almost every entry involves him, and how much she wanted to be with him; yet also relished being part of the in-crowd even though that meant her public boyfriend was Austen who she did not like.  Colt reads the diary and wonders who Julia really was and how will he move on without her as he struggles to get on with his life while grieving in silence.

 

First love can prove disconcerting under ideal conditions, but when social, economic, race, religious  difference also are part of the relationship, it can prove extremely difficult.  Colt and Julia had a tough time of it due to the social class differences between them.  Readers get to know Julia through the mindset of people like Colt but mostly via her dairy; she was a troubled teen unable to break down her feelings for Colt from her need for social acceptance by her peers.  Colt is disturbed by how much he cared for Julia as he has to still conceal his feelings especially his grief as the other man and still find a way to move on.  The Secret Year is a strong teen relationship drama.

 

Harriet Klausner

 

The Rules of Play-Jennie Walker

The Rules of Play

Jennie Walker

Soho, Jan 1 2010, $20.00

ISBN:  9781569476253

 

As the cricket match between England and India occurs, she wonders about changing the rules of engagement in sports and in life.  Her husband is a nice bloke caught up with the test match; so much so he explains the rules of play to his bored wife who asks him feining interest while dreaming of her lover explaining the rules of an affair to her.  Her lover enjoys a bit of mystery in their trysts as if she enables him to ignore his work as a loss adjuster insurance agent.  Her sixteen years old stepson wants nothing to do with her or his father as he plays by his own rules.

 

However, it is her marriage that has left her feeling ennui leading to her pondering whether the rules of cricket apply to the rules of an extramarital affair or for that matter life and marital and extramarital relationships.  She muses whether extraordinary circumstances like hitting a seagull change the rules of cricket, which albeit implies if yes one should alos be able to change the rules of life.

 

The Rules of Play is not for everyone as it has an English philosophical spin that challenges what exactly are the rules of society, who made them and who is the enforcer and referee of them.  The cast is purposely stereotyped to fill a specific relational role i.e., husband, lover, and stepson in the life of the narrator who not only holds the first person account focused but is the only multi dimensional character.  Fans who relish something cerebrally different will relish the Rules of Play in life as cricket is unfair. To those who lose at either game.

 

Harriet Klausner

Tender Graces-Kathryn Magendie

Tender Graces

Kathryn Magendie

Bell Bridge, Oct 28 2009, $14.95

ISBN: 9781602855823

 

Virginia Kate Carey has come to West Virginia to release the ashes of her volatile mother, Katie Ivene Holmes.  In the 1950s, peddler Frederick Hale Carey was going cabin to cabin in the mountains when the Texan arrived at the home of Grandma Faith, mother to Katie Ivene, who looked like an Egyptian princess instead of a Mountaineer.

 

They marry, move into a cabin near grandma Faith, and have three children, two sons Micah and Andy and middle child Kate.  The parents become alcoholics having incredible fights and external trysts.  In an effort to save the marriage, Frederick and Katie send their three children to live with their abusive aunt and even nastier uncle.  The children return home, but Frederick leaves to attend college in Louisiana.  Seven year old Kate is sent to live with her father and Micah in Baton Rouge while Andy stays in the mountains.  One year later momma arrives with a new hunk and Andy whom she leaves behind with Frederick and his siblings.  Now Virginia Kate has come home to release the ashes and write her memoirs so she can also free herself of the ghosts especially that of Katie Ivene who haunts her.

 

This is an intriguing family saga that grips the audience due to the changing voice of the narrator from a seemingly innocent naive little girl to an adult woman trying to free herself when she frees her late mom.  The cast is fully developed as the audience can subtly understand the maturing of the three children especially the daughter who tells the drama of a beautiful volatile mom seemingly larger than life and the more stable than the raging dad.  Their wars before the split never left their three offspring as the child is the adult.  Fans will enjoy this deep look at a dysfunctional family in the 1950s, 60s and 70s never quite finding the happy days.

 

Harriet Klausner

 

Remarkable Creatures-Tracy Chevalier

Remarkable Creatures

Tracy Chevalier

Dutton, Jan 5 2010, $25.95

ISBN: 9780525951452

 

Born in 1799 in Lyme Regis, England, her father gave his daughter quite an education to search for the “curies” of life that can be found by the beach so they can sell their catch to wealthy tourists.  This was Mary Anning’s training at paleontology fossil hunting. She became one of the best and hr research led to her belief that the age of the earth was much older than that of the Old Testament as proof of an age with gigantic creatures before humanity (and Darwin) existed.

 

Elizabeth Philpot and her family come to coastal England for their brother’s marriage.  She meets Mary and enjoys the fossil hunter’s tales.  They become friends and partners searching for the bones of pre mankind.  When Mary discovers fully intact dinosaur remains, Elizabeth speaks for both of them in front of the science community that detests females in their business and several try to rip off the find as theirs.  However their BFF is tested when Colonel Thomas Birch arrives in Lyme Regis to ask Mary to help him on his fossil hunt.

 

Based on real people who made incredible contributions to paleontology before Darwin, Remarkable Creatures is an entertaining historical fiction that showcases the strength of conviction a woman had to have to do anything outside the accepted limited roles.  We come more than just a long way, try light years, from the Regency-Victorian eras.  Fans will enjoy Tracy Chevalier’s spotlight on two women who made a difference as their work is still on display in Oxford.

 

Harriet Klausner

The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet-Colleen McCullough

The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet

Colleen McCullough

Pocket, Dec 2009, $7.99

ISBN: 9781439158791

 

Her sisters assume the bookworm spinster Mary Bennet will take care of their widow mom in her old age.  The siblings each have their own lives although dreams from two decades ago never played out the way each thought it would be.  Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy share an unhappy marriage.   Kitty the widow is lucky as her mate died just after they exchanged their vows.  Jane is pregnant or recovering form pregnancy with no time for anything else.  Lydia has become a drunk.

 

When her termagant mom dies, Mary feels relief as she can now live her life.  Her sisters and their husbands are outraged when she says goodbye as she travels in Northern England keeping a journal on the plight of the working poor.  However, the thirty-eight years old has never been anywhere alone so she runs into all sorts of trouble that she bravely faces like the Highwayman and the Prophet Father Dominus who abducts her into his cave.  Meanwhile Mr. Darcy has political ambitions so he hires nasty but loyal Ned Skinner to keep the sisters in line as scandal would destroy his plans.

 

Although it lacks the subtle humor of Jane Austen, this “sequel” to Pride and Prejducie is well written as it extrapolates where the characters could have gone two decades later.  That is the strength and weakness of the story line as it is interesting to see where Colleen McCullough takes the Bennet sisters and their extended families.  However, fans will find it difficult to accept what they become; for instance Mr. Darcy as an ambitious over the top of Big Ben villain or the bookworm becoming pretty, outgoing and touring the worst conditions she can find in the north.  Fans who cannot get enough Austen spins will enjoy the quadrillionth twist.

 

Harriet Klausner

Leiatra’s Rhapsody-RYCJ

Leiatra’s Rhapsody

RYCJ

OSAAT, 2008, $12.95

ISBN: 9780981825632

 

Leiatra Townsend grew up as the only child to affluent parents in whom her mom was judge, jury and executioner.  Blaine Keith had eleven siblings.  They met at college when she was a sophomore psych major and he a senior seeking as business degree.  A two year rocky courtship led to marriage.  Soon afterward she gave birth Alexis Blake followed rather quickly with twins Seth Gregory and Sedan Jordan.

 

Although Blaine has a strategic plan for his family, Leiatra opens up a counseling practice that is not one of her spouse’s objectives.  Over time Leiatra becomes intrigued by the sexual interactions between the genders and begins a study in which she is the lone female.  She has trysts with patients and other men that she hides from her family and the medical board for years.  Her world collapses when someone anonymously accuses her of unethical practices with the board and to her husband.  She must choose between her research and her family and career.

 

This is a fascinating look at a woman whose medical ethics is questionable though she rationalizes it to herself as field research.  The story line looks deep into why Leiatra seeks out sexual encounters though she knows if her work is revealed, her marriage will end, her children will be left with their father, and her license revoked.  Although the men she uses seem cookie cutter identical, fans will enjoy Leiatra’s Rhapsody as RYCJ will have the reader pondering where the acceptable boundaries of moral medical research are drawn.

 

Harriet Klausner

 

The Passport-Herta Muller

The Passport

Herta Muller

Serpent’s Tail, Nov 2009, $12.95

ISBN: 9781852421397

 

During the brutal reign of Ceausescu, Windisch wants out of his German village in Romania.  In fact he wants out of the country that feels everywhere in his mind as the end instead of a beginning or even a middle.  The coffin with the Widow Kroner’s name on it symbolizes how he feels as the box remains empty waiting for her to die.  Last year to gain a passport to go to West Berlin, he tried bribing the mayor with sacks of flour, but that only left him hungry.  The village miller has tried using his daughter and his bitter wife, but so far has been rejected for the passport he needs to go to the west.  Amalie with her crystal vase and Katharina who survived five Russian winters by selling her coat and more to make grass soup struggle in the village where women survive by sexual favors to the male elite.

 

This is a translation of a 1980s indictment of Ceausescu and the Communists who destroyed Romania economically and morally.  To survive under the reign even in a tiny remote village, one had to bribe the leaders with whatever one had to include a pretty daughter.  The cast makes the tale work while the stark grim brusque writing will stun the audience with its deep message that tyranny at any level destroys.

 

Harriet Klausner

Forever Waiting-DeVa Gantt

Forever Waiting

DeVa Gantt

Avon, Nov 24 2009, $13.99

ISBN: 9780061578267

 

In 1837 Virginia, Governess Charmaine Ryan fears the Duvoisin family empire will soon collapse.  The aging patriarch widower Frederick struggles to keep the plantation and shipping empire afloat, but increasingly believes his efforts are futile as it seems too little too late.  His son John left insisting he will never step on the Duvoisin Plantation again.  His illegitimate son Paul wants to be the head of the shipping empire, but Frederick has doubts that is enflamed by his second wife Agatha who wants everything with no rivalry from his sons.  Meanwhile Paul also insists he loves Charmaine while John comes home reluctantly. Although unsure how she feels about the two offspring, Charmaine will not allow the shrew to destroy her beloved Duvoisin clan as she promised Frederick’s first wife Colette that she will tale care of the men.

 

The final tale in the Colette’s Prayer Duvoisin family saga (see Decision and Destiny: Colette’s Legacy and A Silent Ocean Away: Colette’s Dominion) is a fine sweeping nineteenth century Americana.  The story line focuses deeply on the interrelation extended family dynamics of the Duvoisin brood using flashbacks to inform newcomers how the clan reached that point of implosion.  Although the finish is too emoting  and melodramatic, fans of the saga will relish the heavyweight championship battle between Charmaine and Agatha with the stakes being the souls of the Duvoisin family.

 

Harriet Klausner

Everything But A Christmas-Eve Holly Jacobs

Everything But A Christmas Eve

Holly Jacobs

Avalon, Dec 2009, $23.95

ISBN: 9780803499843

 

In Erie, Pennsylvania Hungarian expatriate Nana Vancy Salo has spent a lifetime fighting the Salo Family Wedding Curse that haunted her descendents whenever one of her blood relatives was about to marry.  However, the curse has been broken and all of her grandchildren happily married.  Instead of resting and enjoying life, she feels lost with no purpose.

 

Nana Vancy tells her Silver Bells friends Isabel Henning and Annabelle Connor that she is bored though she is elated the curse has ended as she feared she would never see that day.  Annabelle suggests Vancy become a matchmaker as she shown a propensity with her grandchildren (see Everything But a Groom, Everything But a Bride and Everything But a Wedding).  Liking the idea, she thought she would try matching up her husband’s office manager Eve Allen and next door neighbor TC Potter with plans of wedding bells for Christmas.  After interrogating a bewildered Eve, she invites her to a family holiday dinner in which TC Potter is also invited after the hostess interrogated him re his status and learns of their past connections in kindergarten and high school.

 

This is a wonderful Christmas surprise (and not just for the confirmed bachelor who finds love with his Christmas Eve) as Holly Jacobs spins beyond the tale of the Salo Curse into a new matchmaking direction for Nana and the Silver Bells.  Fans will enjoy this lighthearted frolic as the three BFFs orchestrate the Twelve Days of Christmas.

 

Harriet Klausner

Love In Translation-Wendy Nelson Tokunaga

Love In Translation

Wendy Nelson Tokunaga

St. Martin’s Griffin, Nov 24 2009, $13.99

ISBN: 9780312372668

 

Thirty three year old Celeste Duncan extrapolates her present into the future and what she sees is ennui.  She needs a change with her job and with her sort of boyfriend, but the wannabe singer fears taking the first step professionally or personally.

 

However, Celeste receives an odd phone call and a box arrives filled with heirlooms; clues to the unknown father she never met.  On a whim based on these new items being omens, she flies from San Jose to Japan in a ten hour airborne sardine can flight to meet her father.  When she meets her English-speaking homestay “brother” Takuya she wants to kiss him senseless, but holds in check the desire.  He helps her follow the clues especially with translating Japanese into English.  As they travel across Japan, Celeste finds she is falling in love with her twenty-eight tears old guide, but his mom has his former girlfriend in mind for a daughter-in-law.  As the trek increasingly looks futile, a despondent Celeste wonders if it is time to return the land of boredom.

 

This is a fun yet profound tale due to the lead female who uses self deprecating amusing metaphors to describe her despondency over her life back in the States and her seeming failures in Japan.  The story line is character driven as the audience will enjoy Celeste’s fumbling with the culture starting with her practiced words in Japanese that she thought meant thank you for welcoming her, but instead her teacher tricked her and she proposed.  Fans will enjoy An American in Japan falling in love with her homestay brother, the culture and the people as she searches for her biological father.

 

Harriet Klausner